(Song Chen/China Daily)
by Raymond Zhou
Technologies work wonders. A generation ago, who would have thought that anyone could launch a talk show and win millions of viewers? A television format had to go through a rigorous vetting process－and tons of money in investment－before it could be aired on the tube, and it still must. But now, all you need is a computer with a camera, or even a regular cellphone with Internet connection.
But what would one do if she (or he) could potentially talk to the whole world?
It turns out sex sells－much more than simple talk. Many online talk shows have morphed into live striptease, or even worse.
In the wee hours of Jan 10, a chat room on Douyutv put out a live feed of its male host having sex with a woman. It attracted thousands of viewers. In-house vigilantes shut it down within minutes and the police were alerted. An investigation is ongoing.
Like many people who use WeChat and Weibo for most functions, I was totally oblivious of the tidal wave of so-called Internet live broadcast until very recently, which are chat rooms with live video operated by individuals and hosted mostly by game sites.
It is an offshoot of online gaming, which I knew has a market size three times that of China's film market in revenue but has never attracted the equivalent media attention.
The chat rooms are forecast to have 100 million unique users each month for 2016, which probably puts them on a par with the popularity of television in its early days.
Unlike movies or television shows, anyone can be a star－well, as long as you are endowed with good looks. The most popular rooms all belong to game sites, so hosts are supposed to talk about the games or even simulcast their plays. But gradually, appearance becomes the main attraction.
Meanwhile, in a field where hundreds of thousands of similar rooms are competing, the urge to break the rules is almost irresistible.
And look at the revenue model. There is no charge for admission like movies, no subscription system like premium cable channels.
The model does not solely rely on advertising. Much of the money comes from viewers who send the hosts "gifts" in the form of virtual flowers or tokens they can purchase from the websites with real money.
On one website, a token is called a "rocket" and costs 500 yuan ($76) each. Some wealthy users send dozens to a hostess they root for. There are tales of "bidding wars" when as much as 1 million yuan is spent in one chat room on a given night.
The money is split three ways. The platform (website) gets 40 percent, the hostess (most are young women) gets 45 percent and the rest goes to the agency that recruits, trains and manages them. In the hierarchy of this business, the vast majority of hosts take home 5,000-15,000 yuan a month while those at the top can earn up to 1 million.
A website made headlines when it signed Han Yiying, a 27-year-old game player with the online handle MISS, for a 20-million-a-year contract.
A chat room can be a room, (many low-end hostesses are put up by their agents in cheap hotels and work much like a telephone service center) but it can also be anywhere.
